"Yet what infuses his mind unstain'd and pure? / Nurtur'd in venal, sycophantic schools-- / Eras'd each sterling virtue of the soul-- / Debas'd--new coin'd in flattery's servile mint, / He may become a pander to a prince."

— Warren, Mercy Otis (1728-1814)


Place of Publication
Boston
Publisher
I. Thomas and E.T. Andrews
Date
1790
Metaphor
"Yet what infuses his mind unstain'd and pure? / Nurtur'd in venal, sycophantic schools-- / Eras'd each sterling virtue of the soul-- / Debas'd--new coin'd in flattery's servile mint, / He may become a pander to a prince."
Metaphor in Context
Though all is lost, and subjugated Spain Lies bleeding at the footstool of a king, I yet would live, for this young cherub's sake:-- Yet what infuses his mind unstain'd and pure?
Nurtur'd in venal, sycophantic schools--
Eras'd each sterling virtue of the soul--
Debas'd--new coin'd in flattery's servile mint,
He may become a pander to a prince
.
Ah!--thus to see Don Juan's son enslaved,
Shocks more than death in its most frightful form.
O guard him, angels--guard him, powers supreme,
From the contagion of each vulgar vice,
Or the more splendid guilt that stalks in courts!--
(V.ii, p. 165)
Provenance
Searching in Google Books
Citation
Only 1 entry in ESTC (1790).

See Mercy Otis Warren, Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous (Boston: I. Thomas and E.T. Andrews, 1790). <Link to ESTC> <Link to Google Books>
Date of Entry
04/10/2012

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.